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A blog about things I like

If you are interested in quilting, patchwork, children's literature and books in general, you've come to the right blog.

Tuesday, 17 June 2014

My favourite podcasts

I love listening to podcasts while I sew. If you know of any good ones, please leave a comment and let me know what you love about them!

You can listen to podcasts on a tablet, ipad, smart phone or just on the computer. I have provided links for you to the iTunes Store but I'm not sure if they will work for you cos I use Australian iTunes.

My absolute number all time best ever favourite comes out every Friday and I look forward to it every week, it's called "Confessions with Simon Mayo". It's a radio show on BBC radio2. Simon Mayo reads out four hilarious "confessions" that audience members have sent in, and then a panel decides whether the person is deserving of forgiveness. It really is a hoot. There are many tales of parents playing tricks on their kids, workplace misdemeanours, holiday hijinks - really there is nothing else out there quite as funny, at least, to my warped sense of humour.

Here's an example.

One family on holiday in Scotland. The dad told the kids in the backseat "see those sheep up on the hill? Those are haggis. They have two short legs on the uphill side and two longer legs on the downhill side, so they don't roll down the hill." Of course mum and dad were winking at each other and holding back the giggles unbeknownst to the kids in the back.

Fast forward a few months and the kid's at school. The teacher says "can anyone tell the class what a haggis is?" Of course, you guessed it, her hand shot up and she told everyone about the wonkylegged Scottish sheep that are bred specially so they don't roll down hills.

This is highly educational. A different topic each week and I have learned about so many amazing parts of our world that I would never bother reading about. The hosts Chuck and Josh do an excellent job. Many of their episodes are US centric though.

"Stuff you missed in history class" is also good and along similar lines. I do find the voices of the hosts ever so slightly annoying, but I still want to listen and learn and find the show very interesting.

"Saw bones" is a newish podcast, hosted by a married couple, the McElroys. The wife is a doctor and the husband is a bit of a doofus, he pretends to want to know about all sorts of ailments. They explain the history of the treatment of that disease or problem by the medical profession through the ages. It's gory. I love it. It's a bit like the segment on "horrible histories" where the Egyptian doctor tries to treat a modern patient using ancient techniques. It's very funny and easy to listen to.

"Dr Karl" is a weekly radio segment on Triple J (Australia wide youth radio station run by the ABC) about science, it's a talkback show so people dial in and ask Dr Karl questions. People ask the weirdest questions. He has a twitter feed too which is a hive of information.

Disclaimer: Dr Karl is an evolutionist so his answers come from that world view but I still find his show informative and fun to listen to. For example, if someone rang up to ask "why do we have armpit hair?" Dr Karl would most likely reply that it is because we are descended from apes. Personally I don't get all het up about that kind of thing - I would say well, you might be an apeman but speak for yourself!

"A history of the world in 100 objects" from the BBC was awe inspiring and marvellous - I was very sad when I got up to the one hundredth object and then there were no more. Each episode featured a different object from the British Museum and together they make a massive timeline of the entire history of humanity. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/

For Christian history I enjoyed listening to "Communio Sanctorum" which is a weekly podcast on church history.

I like to listen to Chuck Missler preaching his way through the Bible in "66/40" but for this one I tend to tune out and miss too much if I'm sewing, so it's one for when I'm listening properly. If I can't sleep st night I put this on and zzzzzzzzzzzz. Out like a light.

I figure if I'm listening to Bible teaching in my sleep I must be absorbing some by osmosis, right?

For a while I listened to many and various quilting podcasts but I gave up on those, they got boring after a while. And they made me want to take on more quilting than I could ever possibly get done in one lifetime!

4 comments:

O, my gosh, the haggis story reminds me that I told my middle son that beets were red cucumbers and carrots were smedley's. I did that in an effort to convince him to eat some veggies. I sure hope he never discussed this in front of his class. Very informative blog - I never listened to a podcast in my life. I can probably get some interesting ones on my tablet.

I've never listened to podcasts, I'll have to give it a try. Sounds like 'Confessions with Simon Mayo' may be a good place to start. We went out to eat for my birthday one year and told my youngest that the calamari was sea potatoes. She loved them until we told her what it really was! And, yes, I believe in osmossis.